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Survey says: iPhone 5 owners not bothered by iOS 6 Maps—are you?

More people were bothered by the Lightning connector than Maps.

Is the iOS 6 Maps controversy actually affecting people's willingness to buy a new iPhone 5? Not in a significant way, according to a survey conducted by ChangeWave and 451 Research. The two companies teamed up to ask 4,270 smartphone consumers during the month of September about their perceptions of the iPhone 5, as well as about upcoming phones that run Windows 8. What the firms found was that the masses consider some of the nitpicks about iOS 6 and/or iPhone 5 to be of little consequence, though the impending introduction of Windows 8 may lure away some who are on the fence.

According to the survey, 90 percent of those who currently own an iPhone 5 running iOS 6 said they had not yet run into a problem while using the new version of Maps. Six percent said that Maps had been "somewhat of a problem," while three percent said Maps was a major problem.

ChangeWave points out that this is similar to a 2010 survey that followed the iPhone 4's "antennagate," where the majority of customers (64 percent) indicated that they had not experienced any noticeable antenna problems. Those numbers were largely reflected by our own poll of the Ars Technica readership—with almost 7,000 votes, 60 percent of Ars readers said at the time that they hadn't been affected by the iPhone 4's antenna issue.

The more interesting statistics in the new survey come from questions about Apple's Lightning connector. As I wrote in our iPhone 5 review, the new connector can be an inconvenience for longtime Apple product owners who have 30-pin connectors coming out of their ears, though now seems as good a time as any for Apple to make a change. Those surveyed by ChangeWave seemed to be in agreement. They actually appear to be more bothered by the Lightning connector than they are by Maps—31 percent said the Lightning connector was "somewhat of a problem." Still, when the companies surveyed users who weren't likely to buy an iPhone 5, zero percent said their decision was due to the Lightning connector.

Then there are those who are eyeing some of the new devices that will run Windows 8 when it is released later this month. Nine percent of those surveyed said they were likely to buy one such device, with 36 percent of those saying their top reason was integration with Windows apps on the desktop. Although nearly half said they didn't know yet which manufacturer they might choose—HTC, Nokia, and Samsung all plan to release Windows 8 Phones—the early numbers could be promising.

"Considering marketing has yet to begin, these findings show Windows Phone 8 will likely have a substantial impact on the smartphone industry," ChangeWave VP of research Paul Carton said in a statement.

Your mapping adventures

Returning to Maps and the iPhone 5, we're interested to see what the Ars readership thinks now that the device has been public for several weeks. If you already own an iPhone 5, has Maps diminished your experience? And if you haven't bought one yet but are still planning on it, does the Maps situation give you pause? Or is the whole issue overblown?

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui